GM, Honda to make hydrogen fuel cells at Michigan factory

The General Motors Electrovan was the world’s first hydrogen-power fuel cell vehicle. It was developed in 1966. This technical art shows the Electrovan’s interior crammed with fuel cell components that left room for only a driver and two passengers.(Photo: GM)

General Motors and Honda said Monday that they will invest $85 million to form a joint venture and hire 100 workers to produce advanced hydrogen fuel cell systems at a factory in Michigan.

Each automaker plans to contribute $42.5 million to Fuel Cell System Manufacturing, the new joint venture, and expects production will begin by 2020 at an existing plant where GM makes battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt and several hybrids.

For years, automakers have said hydrogen-powered cars could have a big future as an alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles, but a lack of refueling infrastructure and development challenges delayed their introduction. Now, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai all offer hydrogen cars or crossovers to consumers in California and the zero-emission vehicles are emerging as a sensible alternative for some consumers.

Fuel cell vehicles operate on hydrogen. Water vapor is the only emission from fuel cell vehicles. GM and Honda first began working together in 2013 to develop a next-generation fuel cell system and hydrogen storage technologies.

“Over the past three years, engineers from Honda and GM have been working as one team with each company providing know-how from its unique expertise to create a compact and low-cost next-generation fuel cell system,” Toshiaki Mikoshiba, Honda's chief operating officer in North American region, said in a statement.

That research, he said, gives the two companies the ability to now mass produce fuel cell systems.

“With the next-generation fuel cell system, GM and Honda are making a dramatic step toward lower cost, higher-volume fuel cell systems," said Charlie Freese, GM's executive director of global fuel cell business. "The result is a lower-cost system that is a fraction of the size and mass.”

Fuel Cell System Manufacturing will be managed by a board of directors with three executives from each company and a rotating chairperson.

Honda has bet big on hydrogen cars. Honda's latest hydrogen model, the Clarity Fuel Cell, went on sale in the U.S. in December in California with sales of eight units in its first month.

The automaker is offering leases of the Clarity at an introductory price of $369 a month for 36 months with a $2,868 down payment. Honda also offers a mileage allowance of 20,000 miles per year with up to $15,000 of hydrogen fuel.

The Clarity Fuel Cell features a class-leading driving range rating for zero-emission vehicles with its EPA range rating of 366 miles and fuel economy rating of 68 miles per gallon of gasoline-equivalent combined.

Meanwhile, GM says it has invested more than $2.5 billion in hydrogen fuel cell technology and is among patent leaders in the automotive industry fuel cell technology and has accumulated millions of miles of real-world driving in fuel cell vehicles.

GM tested the Electrovan, the world’s first hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle, in 1966.